British Paralympic runner
Noel Thatcher MBE is a British Paralympic runner who represented the United Kingdom at six Paralympic Games between 1984 and 2004, collecting a total of five gold medals. His two career highlights are winning gold and setting a world record at Barcelona in 1992, and winning the 5k race in Sydney in 2000, again setting a world record. At the 2004 Games in Athens, he carried the flag for the Great Britain team at the opening ceremony.[1]
Early life
Thatcher, who is visually impaired, attended a mainstream primary school where he encountered difficulties with his studies because of his vision. At ten he was sent to Exhall Grange School near Coventry, a specialist school for visually impaired students, and it was here that he developed his athletic skills. Thatcher has said that he was made to run five miles every day for a month as a punishment after he was caught smoking aged twelve, and this helped him to become a proficient runner.[2]
Career
He made his athletics debut at seventeen at a national school championships after being persuaded to attend by a friend, and won a gold medal. He went on to represent the United Kingdom at the Paralympics in 1984, winning silver in the B3 400m.[3]
At the 1988 Seoul Paralympics, Thatcher won gold in the B2 800m and silver in the B2 1500m, behind Mariano Ruiz of Spain.[4]
Four years later at Barcelona 1992, he took the gold medal in the B2 1500m; the silver in the B1-B3 4 × 400m relay alongside Simon Butler, Andrew Curtis and Mark Whiteley; and the bronze in the B2 800m.[5]
Thatcher was a double gold medal winner at Atlanta 1996, triumphing in the T11 5000m and 10,000m.[6]
At the 2000 Sydney Games, in the T12 class, Thatcher took gold in the 5000m and bronze in the 10,000m.[7]
Thatcher carried the flag for Great Britain at the opening ceremony of Athens 2004, and competed in the T12 5000m and T13 10,000m, narrowly missing out on a medal by finishing fourth in both finals.[8][9]
Personal life
Thatcher met his wife Yumi while studying Japanese at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.[2] Away from athletics, Thatcher works as a physiotherapist at the Holly House Hospital in Buckhurst Hill, Essex.[2]
Honours
His achievements at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta led to him being appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours for services to athletics for disabled people.[2][10] He was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.[11]
